Guilty
by Bibbibabka Ditty
Summary: Castle gives Beckett all the proof she needs.


Kate let out a long sigh as she sunk into the bath and picked up her glass of wine. As she took a sip she began to recount the days event. The case had been an easy one. A simple Jack shot Jill over Bill. The case wasn't what was bothering her. No, it was her psuedu-partner, Richard Castle. He had been acting strangely and though her imagination wasn't up there with his, her mind was still awhirl with what that could mean. Was he getting bored with the preceint? With her? Was he going to leave? She gave a humph of breath at herself. When had she become such a girl? She was just fine before she met him and she would be just fine without him now. Another heartbeat later and she let out a groan as she realized she couldn't even lie to herself anymore. She leaned her head back as she closed her eyes and continued to think.

It wasn't until she noticed that the water had turned could that she allowed her self to rise. After putting on her favorite pajamas, black yoga pants and a large t-shirt that Castle had given her to sleep in when her apartment blew up, she made her way back to the kitchen for another glass of wine. Just as she passed the door she heard a knock. She quickly glanced at the door in surprise. Looking through the peephole she wasn't completely taken aback to see the dark haired man standing nervously before him. Taking a couple of breaths to steady herself, sure that by the time he left she would be a broken woman. She slowly opened the door.

"Hey Castle. What are you doing her?" If he noticed the tremble in her voice he didn't let it show.

"I needed to talk to you and it couldn't wait any longer." He spoke softly and didn't look in her in the eyes.

"Come in." She opened the door to let him enter and stood confused when he backed a couple steps into the hallway and grabbed a large white board, much like the ones she used to solve her cases, and wheeled it into her living room.

"Castle?" She couldn't get any other words out. He walked over to her and closed the door. He turned and faced her, looking into her eyes for the first time since his arrival.

"Promise you will let me say everything I need to before you make me leave." There was a note of desperation in his plea that tugged at her heart.

"Yeah, okay. I promise." Because when the man you loves looks at you like that what else could you say.

"He took her hand and led her to the couch. He sat her down and arranged the white board so she could see clearly. Then he took some markers from his pocket and pulled a file from his jacket, laying them on the coffee table. When he looked up at the women in front of him he was expecting the tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoner, super detective, instead it was Kate. Just Kate. And she looked as nervous as he felt.

"You trust me right?" She nodded at his question. He smiled a little and walked to her. Using his index finger he tapped her forehead. "You trust me here. I'm going to prove you can trust me her." And moved his finger and tapped just above her heart. "And the best way I can do that is to convince you here," he brought his finger up to her forehead again, "so we are going to look at this like any other case. He grabbed a black marker and began to writhe on the board. When he finished he stepped back so she could read what he wrote. On the top left under the word CRIME he had written "Loving Kate Beckett" The top right had the word SUSPECT and under that his name. He pulled a face shot of himself out of the folder and attached it next to his name with a magnet. Underneath that he had written two more words. EVEDENCE and WITNESSES. Those columns where still empty.

He again glanced at Beckett and wasn't sure he liked what he saw. She was still sitting where he had left her but her eyes were as big as saucers. However she hadn't pulled out her gun yet so he decided to continue. He grabbed the blue marker next and began a steady stream of words that he read allowed as he wrote. Phrases such as "all the songs make sense" and "I'd break her out of jail" made the way from his mouth to his pen. Halfway down the board he heard a warm hearted chuckle as he wrote, "I bring her coffee everyday" When he reached the end of the board he turned and said sheepishly "There's more but I ran out of room." He took a couple of deep breaths as he made his way to the other side of the board. This was going to be the most difficult part and he honestly wasn't sure how she would take it. He brought his phone out of his pocket and hit the speed dial. As he waited for the person on the other end of the phone to answer he wrote a name. He had put the phone on speaker so when the young voice responded he heard a sharp intake of breath behind him. It was obvious that she had figured out the next part of his plan.

"Hey Pumpkin. I need to ask you something and I want you to answer it honestly okay?" After she agreed he asked her "when was the first time you knew I was in love with Kate?"

It wasn't even a heartbeat later when Alexis answered. " When you figured out Dunn was still alive and you ran out of the house when she didn't answer the phone."

"Thank you. Can you get Grams?" While he waited for his mother he wrote in neat script what Alexis had said. A minute later he had put the same question to his mother.

"When you decided to tell Kate about her mother even though it meant you might never see her again." He thanked her adding the information to the board. He spent the next several minutes asking Lanie, Esposito, and Ryan the same question and got similar answers. There was no hesitation on there parts. Like it was common knowledge that he loved her. There was no question of IF he loved her. It was always WHEN. He had one more witness to question and he knew that this is the one that had the potential to make it or break it for him. A male voice answered and when Castle made eye contact with Beckett again he knew she recognized the voice on the line.

"Mr. Beckett. It's Richard Castle." After confirming that Kate was okay he asked the same question as before. "When did you know I was in love with your daughter?"

" After she kicked you out of her life when you told her about Johanna. Only a man in love would call her father begging to know she was okay."

Castle gave his thanks and quickly added the information on the board. He took a few steps closer to Kate and sat on his knees in front of her. He grabbed her hand and began talking.

"There you have it. A suspect, evidence, eyewitnesses. And now. Now you have a confession because I admit. I'm guilty. I love _you_, Kate. He watched as the tears rained down her cheeks as she detangled her hand from his. She rose up and stood in front of the white board, studying it as intently as she would a murder board. Finally with a load sigh and a shaky breath she picked up the phone that he had sat on the table. When the other person answered she looked into Rick's eyes.

" Daddy, when did you first know that I was in love with Richard Castle…?"


End file.
